Sydney Catholic Education Office schools’ students are expanding their reading Orbit

Sydney Catholic Education Office (SCEO) schools are excited to be providing students with an engaging new interface for their Oliver v5 library solution.

The new interface, ‘Orbit’, was designed specifically for junior and middle school students and is proving to be an inspiring tool for young readers.

Orbit enables students to personalise their own library home page, using different backgrounds, avatars and colour schemes.

Sydney Catholic Education Office, Library Information Services Manager, John O’Brien, said that feedback from SCEO schools using Orbit has been great.

‘The students love being able to customise their own library home page, it makes the whole library experience more engaging,’ John said.

Softlink Managing Director, Nathan Godfrey said Orbit is easy for junior and middle school students to navigate but offers advanced features and functionality to help them get the most out of their school book collection and knowledge resources.

Orbit offers the latest generation technology and has been developed from the ground up for tablets and iPads, making it genuinely easy for students to access Orbit, anywhere, anytime.

‘Students can search their library catalogue from home and even borrow and download eBooks from within the Orbit interface,’ Nathan said.

With Orbit, schools have the ability to include an automated carousel of recommended books or resources.

John O’Brien said that when Sydney Catholic Education Office deployed Orbit, they set up a book carousel that featured Grades 1 – 6 Premier’s Reading List titles, but individual schools can create or edit their own carousels.

‘It’s great to be able to feature these books and encourage reading for enjoyment from a young age.’

Students can also create and post book reviews and read reviews posted by their peers.

‘It provides a more interactive library experience for students, teachers and library staff,’ John said.

Orbit is one of a number of exciting new developments released for Oliver v5 in the past twelve months.

‘With Oliver v5 and Orbit we are providing leading technology for learning, both now and into the future,’ John said.

Orbit has been deployed to all 149 schools in the Sydney Catholic Education Office Archdiocese.

Learn more about Orbit

• Watch this short video (3:34) to learn more about Orbit, Oliver v5’s junior and middle school search interface. 
  
   
• Read this blog post to learn more about the fun avatars and backgrounds in Orbit that have been designed to engage younger students and features that help them learn the skills to independently navigate the library catalogue.
  
   
• Read this case study from Our Lady of Good Counsel and learn how Orbit has changed the way students are using the library.